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Monday, October 19, 2009

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association affirms laptop breach

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is reviewing its security practices after thieves stole an employee's computer that contained an unencrypted file with the personal information of nearly every doctor who accepts the popular health insurance plan.That amounted to between 800,000 and 850,000 doctors, spokesman Jeff Smokler said. The data on the computer file -- which was stolen out of a parked car in Chicago over the weekend -- included names, addresses, tax ID and physician identifier numbers. In 16 percent of the cases, the tax ID number was a Social Security number.